Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer was an influential American playwright, author, and activist born on June 25, 1935, in Connecticut. A Yale University graduate, he initially made his mark in the film industry, earning an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay of the film "Women in Love." However, it was his provocative writing and activism around LGBTQ+ issues, particularly during the AIDS crisis, that defined his legacy. Kramer's 1978 novel "Faggots" stirred significant controversy for its candid portrayal of gay men's lives and desires, leading to his ostracism from parts of the gay community.
In response to the AIDS epidemic, which began to take a toll in the early 1980s, Kramer co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and later the activist group ACT UP, advocating for urgent research and awareness. His plays, including "The Normal Heart," dramatized the struggle against the AIDS crisis and highlighted the failures of government and society to address the epidemic adequately. Throughout his career, Kramer remained a fierce critic of complacency within both the LGBTQ+ community and the broader societal response to AIDS, pushing for political and social change. His works continue to resonate, reflecting a commitment to activism and a deep engagement with the challenges faced by the gay community.
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Subject Terms
Larry Kramer
- Born: June 25, 1935
- Birthplace: Bridgeport, Connecticut
Author Profile
Larry Kramer was born in Connecticut on June 25, 1935, into a Jewish family. He followed his father and older brother Arthur to attend Yale University beginning in 1953. After his 1957 graduation from Yale, Larry Kramer moved quickly into the world of filmmaking. For more than a decade, he wrote and produced films, winning an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay for the film version of the D. H. Lawrence novel Women in Love (1920).
Supported by money from his career and lessons learned from years of psychological therapy—begun after a suicide attempt during his freshman year in college—Kramer determined to explore artistic ways to respond to being gay. After his 1972 play, Sissies’ Scrapbook, failed to please critics or attract audiences, Kramer published a highly controversial but wildly successful novel, Faggots (1978), which characterizes gay men as obsessed with sex but longing for love. Friends expressed their anger at Kramer for what they felt was the novel’s negative portrayal of gay men as promiscuous and obsessed with partying and drugs. As a result he was largely ostracized from the gay community, while mainstream culture viewed the book as shocking. The book was banned by some gay bookstores and conservative groups alike, though it sold well. Then in the early 1980s an alarming number of gay men began falling ill with a strange new disease. Kramer gathered eighty men together in August 1981 to talk about what was happening. From that meeting was born Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), one of the first AIDS advocacy and service organizations.
Kramer quickly found his niche as a spokesman for gay men with AIDS. His anger was fueled by meager research funds, by what he saw as the Reagan Administration’s failure to act, and by what seemed like blindness to the seriousness of the crisis on the part of New York officials. He also criticized the gay community's alleged apathy to the problem and continued to condemn what he saw as the prevalent promiscuous and nonpolitical lifestyle of many of its members. Many gay men directed their anger at Kramer, who urged them to rein in their sexual activity until the cause of the disease was found.
In Kramer’s incendiary—and highly influential—1983 essay for the New York Native, “1,112 and Counting,” he affirmed anger as the appropriate emotion for contemporary gay men, claiming that “continued existence depends on how angry you can get.” Soon GMHC removed Kramer from its board of directors because of his confrontational style.
Kramer dramatized the early years of the AIDS crisis, including his role in the formation of GMHC, in his largely autobiographical play The Normal Heart (1985). It was highly successful, drawing attention both for its artistic value and its powerful, angry social message and enjoying a long initial production run. It would go on to become considered a landmark work of theater, with several successful revivals and an acclaimed film adaptation starring Mark Ruffalo and Matt Bomer in 2014. In the late 1980s, Kramer discovered that he, too, was infected with the AIDS virus. That knowledge spurred him to help form a new, radical organization: AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT-UP.
Kramer moved into nonfiction with the essay collection Reports from the Holocaust: The Story of an AIDS Activist (1989, expanded in 1994), continuing his focus on AIDS awareness and social activism. As the title implies, he came to view the AIDS crisis as a holocaust against the gay community, with significant blame falling on the US government. In The Destiny of Me, his 1993 sequel to The Normal Heart, Kramer’s alter ego, Ned Weeks, reappears, still venting his rage at institutions that he thinks are ignoring or making worse the AIDS epidemic. At the same time, Ned confronts his family demons and his tortured childhood. He continued his nonfiction exploration of gay culture in The Tragedy of Today's Gays (2005), a book based on a 2004 speech calling for increased political action by LGBT people to combat what he views as a hostile social atmosphere in the United States.
Bibliography
Baker, Rob. The Art of AIDS. New York: Continuum, 1994. Print.
Clum, John M. Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama. New York: Columbia UP, 1992. Print.
Clum, John M. Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000. Print.
Harris, William. “Staying Angry.” Dance Ink Spring 1995. Print.
Kramer, Larry. “An Interview with Larry Kramer.” Interview by L. A. Winokur. The Progressive June 1994: 32. Print.
Kramer, Larry. “Playboy Interview.” Playboy September 1993. Print.
Mass, Lawrence D., ed. We Must Love One Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997. Print.
Nelson, Emmanuel S. AIDS: The Literary Response. New York: Twayne, 1992. Print.
Shnayerson, Michael. “Kramer vs. Kramer.” Vanity Fair Oct. 1992: 228–297. Print.